Dinesh Gunawardena takes oath as new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s new President Ranil Wickremesinghe called in the military to maintain “public order” and troops began dismantling a key protest site near the presidential office early Friday, leading to tense scenes with demonstrators. 

The oceanfront Galle Face camp was swarmed by hundreds of soldiers and police officials who detained some protesters and tore down the makeshift tents. A nationwide emergency, that allows military and police sweeping powers to arrest and detain people, remains in place. 

Wickremesinghe appointed Dinesh Gunawardena, an ally of former premier Mahinda Rajapaksa, as prime minister. Wickremesinghe will be finance and defence minister, eroding hopes of an all-party government to revive bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund. The new president was sworn in on Thursday after winning a three-way race in parliament.

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, the worst since it gained independence in 1948, has spiraled into a political crisis as well. 

Soaring inflation and acute shortages of everything from food to fuel to essential medicines have brought thousands of citizens to the streets.

Sri Lankan security forces raided and partially cleared a protest camp occupying government grounds in Colombo early on Friday, fuelling fears that President Ranil Wickremesinghe had launched a crackdown a day after being sworn in.

Media footage showed soldiers in riot gear and armed with assault rifles tearing down the camp, set up in April by protesters enraged by the country's economic collapse and acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

Nine people arrested in the pre-dawn raid were later granted bail by a Colombo court, police said.

Protesters had feared a crackdown after Wickremesinghe as acting head of state on Monday imposed a national state of emergency. Many regard him as an ally of Rajapaksa.

Previous emergency regulations have been used to give powers to the military to arrest protesters and curtail the right to demonstrate.

“The current president is now on a warpath with protesters,” said Rauff Hakeem, lawmaker from the opposition Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “His actions last night show that now he is determined to be a little more oppressive when it requires for him to get his premises cleared.”

Wickremesinghe has called in the country’s military to maintain public order across the island nation.

        Power dynamics: status quo?

• A schoolmate of President Wickremesinghe, Gunawardena has held various Cabinet posts in the past
• Gunawardena is the leader of the Trotskyist majority nationalist Mahajana Eksath Peramuna 
• His close connection with the Rajapaksas can draw the ire of protesters